Solo diving - no, with your training and skill level? No way, no how. Period. I'm sure you have heard this advice in your OW course. Remember, it only takes a second to get into trouble.
Stupid Newbie question
- Thread starter Stormingheaven
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bamamedic
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Y'know, if the dive site is only 8 feet deep, there are NO entangement hazards at all (no fallen trees, no branches, no loose rope, no monofilament line), and you've got someone on the shore to keep an eye on you, there's no chance of wandering into deeper water, and there's no boat traffic to worry about....
....it's still solo diving.
Odds are, everything will be just fine. You'll dive at this pristine little site a few times, practice skills, chase a few fish, and all will be good. But what if there's an entanglement hazard you weren't aware of? Natural dive sites (rivers, lakes, etc) do change from time to time. Trees fall in the water, boats get stuck and their drivers leave rope in the water, or someone snares a hook on the bottom, cuts the line, and leaves it free floating.
Solo diving is an added risk. There's no getting around that. It's completely up to you as to whether it's a risk you want to take.
....it's still solo diving.
Odds are, everything will be just fine. You'll dive at this pristine little site a few times, practice skills, chase a few fish, and all will be good. But what if there's an entanglement hazard you weren't aware of? Natural dive sites (rivers, lakes, etc) do change from time to time. Trees fall in the water, boats get stuck and their drivers leave rope in the water, or someone snares a hook on the bottom, cuts the line, and leaves it free floating.
Solo diving is an added risk. There's no getting around that. It's completely up to you as to whether it's a risk you want to take.
don Francisco
Contributor
If your dockside site is similar to a pool in terms of visibility, and freedom from potential entanglements, it might be OK. I think it's important that you have a safety person observing you and that the clarity is good enough that that person can actually see you in the water.
But even if the lake is OK, you're still better off doing your practice where other divers can observe and critique and if necessary assist you. I'd ask your instructor if you could attend pool sessions when he's teaching classes. The odds are he'll say yes.
But even if the lake is OK, you're still better off doing your practice where other divers can observe and critique and if necessary assist you. I'd ask your instructor if you could attend pool sessions when he's teaching classes. The odds are he'll say yes.
ToddK
Contributor
Besides the entanglement hazard that has already been mentioned, the other thing I would worry about is silting out the water. What kind of bottom is it? You might want to assess this before trying a dive. I would also advise filling out your Scubaboard profile...you never know if you might run into a potential buddy in your neck of the woods. -Todd.
Welcome to scuba diving, which, for all of us and every day, involves intelligent assessment of risk. As Walter is wont to say, the only way to be perfectly safe when diving is not to do it 
So, let's look at the risks involved in diving alone in your lake, in 8' of water.
1. Entanglement. This is the big one. Getting entangled and not being able to fix it is a lethal problem. It's easy to understand being scared of entanglement in monofilament, because it's hard to see, but you can be lethally entangled in much heavier material. (We had a rebreather diver die here a while back from what appears to have been getting entangled in a buoy chain, in pretty shallow water.) Simple entanglements with a bit of monofilament may be easy to solve with a cutting device. More extensive ones may require getting out of your gear, which is something you practiced in your OW class, but have probably not practiced since, and it's a lot to ask of a new diver in a stressful circumstance. Of course, in 8' of water, you can get out of your gear and go to the surface (remembering to exhale, of course!) If the water in which you are diving is quite clear, and your surface support can see you have a problem, they may be able to freedive down to assist you. If the water is murky, the first they'll know of a problem is when your bubbles stop, which is a bit late . . .
2. Visibility. Many lakes, because of the lack of water movement in them, have very silty bottoms. Just wading into the lake will make the water turbid, and poor finning technique (as most of us had at the beginning) will continue to churn up the bottom (especially in such shallow water) and you could find yourself in a zero visibility situation very easily. Now, zero viz in 8 feet of water isn't a problem, as long as you remain calm, but it is a situation where some people get vertigo, and you have to retain the presence of mind to watch your gauge and head for the surface. Practicing useful scuba skills in such conditions will be difficult at best.
3. Equipment issues. You aren't very familiar with your equipment yet, and probably don't have much experience in managing anything that doesn't work. It's highly unlikely that something will happen that will kill you in 8 feet of water, but panicking because something HAS happened, and bolting to the surface, can.
So I would say that, if your water is clear and you can maintain surface support, and the area is free of significant entanglement hazards, the risk of practicing in your lake is low enough that I would accept it for myself. You have to think it through for yourself, and you may decide something different.
I have done a lot of solo practice in my own swimming pool, and not all of it has been with anyone else home. But the big thing is that I know my own temperament, and I feel very confident that nothing that can happen in my pool will cause me to lose my cool. I have some basis for that, because I've been through a lot of deliberately stress-inducing training. A new diver really doesn't know that about himself, which is why there is still some risk, even in that benign environment.
So, let's look at the risks involved in diving alone in your lake, in 8' of water.
1. Entanglement. This is the big one. Getting entangled and not being able to fix it is a lethal problem. It's easy to understand being scared of entanglement in monofilament, because it's hard to see, but you can be lethally entangled in much heavier material. (We had a rebreather diver die here a while back from what appears to have been getting entangled in a buoy chain, in pretty shallow water.) Simple entanglements with a bit of monofilament may be easy to solve with a cutting device. More extensive ones may require getting out of your gear, which is something you practiced in your OW class, but have probably not practiced since, and it's a lot to ask of a new diver in a stressful circumstance. Of course, in 8' of water, you can get out of your gear and go to the surface (remembering to exhale, of course!) If the water in which you are diving is quite clear, and your surface support can see you have a problem, they may be able to freedive down to assist you. If the water is murky, the first they'll know of a problem is when your bubbles stop, which is a bit late . . .
2. Visibility. Many lakes, because of the lack of water movement in them, have very silty bottoms. Just wading into the lake will make the water turbid, and poor finning technique (as most of us had at the beginning) will continue to churn up the bottom (especially in such shallow water) and you could find yourself in a zero visibility situation very easily. Now, zero viz in 8 feet of water isn't a problem, as long as you remain calm, but it is a situation where some people get vertigo, and you have to retain the presence of mind to watch your gauge and head for the surface. Practicing useful scuba skills in such conditions will be difficult at best.
3. Equipment issues. You aren't very familiar with your equipment yet, and probably don't have much experience in managing anything that doesn't work. It's highly unlikely that something will happen that will kill you in 8 feet of water, but panicking because something HAS happened, and bolting to the surface, can.
So I would say that, if your water is clear and you can maintain surface support, and the area is free of significant entanglement hazards, the risk of practicing in your lake is low enough that I would accept it for myself. You have to think it through for yourself, and you may decide something different.
I have done a lot of solo practice in my own swimming pool, and not all of it has been with anyone else home. But the big thing is that I know my own temperament, and I feel very confident that nothing that can happen in my pool will cause me to lose my cool. I have some basis for that, because I've been through a lot of deliberately stress-inducing training. A new diver really doesn't know that about himself, which is why there is still some risk, even in that benign environment.
OP
Stormingheaven
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I want to thank all of you for your insight.
As far as the conditions at our lake, the water at the end of our dock starts at about 4 feet and goes to about 8 feet over the course of about 200 yards. The bottom is sand covered with about 1" to 2" of silt with no vegetation. There are no trees and it's terrible fishing in this part of the lake. IE no structure. The chance of entanglement in this part of the lake is very low. Visibility is conservatively 50 feet as I can see our neighbors dock while under water. This area of the lake is wonderful for swimming and I as well as our kids swim here often.
As far as risk assessment goes, I am a Paramedic by trade and am ex Deputy Sheriff. I'm a pilot and I skydived for a number of years, I have a good idea of my limitations and have no problem not flying, jumping, swimming, fishing, snowmobiling etc. if the conditions are poor or present an unacceptable risk.
What I was hoping to do is, well get wet. Spend some time in a relatively controlled environment seeing if I could learn to swim just off of the bottom without kicking up all the silt. Simply just spend some time getting comfortable under water
I intend to continue taking more advanced dive classes as soon as I can and as weather permits.
Thanks again for all your advise.
As far as the conditions at our lake, the water at the end of our dock starts at about 4 feet and goes to about 8 feet over the course of about 200 yards. The bottom is sand covered with about 1" to 2" of silt with no vegetation. There are no trees and it's terrible fishing in this part of the lake. IE no structure. The chance of entanglement in this part of the lake is very low. Visibility is conservatively 50 feet as I can see our neighbors dock while under water. This area of the lake is wonderful for swimming and I as well as our kids swim here often.
As far as risk assessment goes, I am a Paramedic by trade and am ex Deputy Sheriff. I'm a pilot and I skydived for a number of years, I have a good idea of my limitations and have no problem not flying, jumping, swimming, fishing, snowmobiling etc. if the conditions are poor or present an unacceptable risk.
What I was hoping to do is, well get wet. Spend some time in a relatively controlled environment seeing if I could learn to swim just off of the bottom without kicking up all the silt. Simply just spend some time getting comfortable under water
I intend to continue taking more advanced dive classes as soon as I can and as weather permits.
Thanks again for all your advise.
bamamedic
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Sounds like you've already got your mind made up....
Have you tried posting in the regional forums, to see if you can find a dive buddy? You can learn more from watching more experienced divers, than you can on your own.
Have you tried posting in the regional forums, to see if you can find a dive buddy? You can learn more from watching more experienced divers, than you can on your own.
Stormingheaven:
Why do you want to be more comfortable with your gear? Why do you want to become comfortable breathing underwater?
I suspect it may have something to do with a honest self evaluation and you've realized you may have a little way to go before you are the diver you'd like to be. In my opinion, that's a great start and you should practice and work on your skills. Until your skills are top notch and you are comfortable and confident with them, you are not nearly as safe as you could be. When little things go wrong, lack of confidence can and often does lead to panic. Panic can and does kill. When little things go wrong, we sometimes have confidence in our buddy and remain calm because of that calming influence. Solo diving is for folks who have mastered those issues you want to work on. Solo diving should never be used to work on those issues, not even in a pool. Odds are in your favor that nothing would go wrong, but the odds are even better if you stick to the buddy system until long after you've resolved those issues of skill and experience.
Diving solo for you is a very, very bad idea at this time.
Coldwater_Canuck
Contributor
And that's the question with doing anything in diving or in life.
There is no doubt that solo diving is more dangerous than buddy diving: I really won't believe someone who claims that a buddy makes it more dangerous unless they are diving with a lunatic.
But, the question I have is: is solo diving in a situation like this dangerous compared to similar activities you'd do without thinking twice about? There are a million things that could happen. But at the lake I have a camp on, I swim in areas where a boat could hit me, I tend to swim below the surface a bit (just dive down 5 to 10 feet for fun) which has its own "getting confused" and "entanglement" hazards in theory, if I suffered a heart attack alone, I don't have a life jacket so I'd probably drown, there's even the possibility of some sort of serious injury due to marine life or hitting a sharp rock or broken glass on the bottom. And maybe most of all, if I'm swimming a good distance from shore, there may be no-one around to help if something goes wrong: I'll have to sit on a rock and hope a boat comes by.
So tons of things that could go wrong, probably none will, but "solo swimming" doesn't have these automatic huge negative attitudes, yet diving does. And I'm not sure in the conditions described by the OP, solo diving would be any more dangerous than the swimming I've described (no data to back this up: just a feeling).
OP
Stormingheaven
Registered
Thanks all
I just I'll just put this one on the back burner for a while. It doesn't seem as though the benefit to risk is going to be worth it.
We have a new pontoon boat and maybe it would be easier to entice divers to put up with a newbie if I was putting on the dive...
I just I'll just put this one on the back burner for a while. It doesn't seem as though the benefit to risk is going to be worth it.
We have a new pontoon boat and maybe it would be easier to entice divers to put up with a newbie if I was putting on the dive...
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